Summary
This industrial sector case study exemplifies the Mexican government leadership
and technology cooperation by multinational companies to set in place the technology
know-how and information necessary to rapidly eliminate CFC solvents used in
the Mexican electronic manufacturing industry.

The CFCs were phased out under the Montreal Protocol by using HFCs, which are
regulated under the Kyoto Protocol. HFCs have much lower GWP as compared to
CFCs. The lesson learned from this technology transfer may be useful for similar
transfer under the Climate Change Convention.
Background
In several impressive ways the Government and industry in Mexico supported the
stratospheric ozone layer protection and this had motivated technology cooperation.
Mexican leadership attracted the support of private companies and the U.S. EPA.
Diplomatically, Mexico supported the Montreal Protocol by advocating its passage
in 1987, by being the first country to sign the Protocol and by being the first
country to complete ratification. With the support of environmental NGOs, the
Mexico aerosol industry association "Instituto Mexicano del Aerosol A.C."
(IMAAC), organised the first voluntary sectoral phaseout of CFCs by any developing
country, achieving the phaseout in cosmetic and pesticide products at least
five years faster than the European Union. This recognition caused the industry
association to reconsider conventional wisdom and to propose that Mexico phaseout
on the same schedule as developed countries rather than taking the additional
ten years allowed by the Protocol. At a series of industry workshops, it was
identified that the major barriers to phasing out ODS solvents used in Mexican
electronics manufacturing were information and access to alternatives, agreement
of foreign business partners and customers, and technical implementation. Jorge
Corona had been the President of IMAAC at the time of the Mexican aerosol phaseout
and also was an expert member of the Montreal Protocol Solvents Technical Options
Committee. This joint experience gave the Mexican industry associations full
confidence in the technical alternatives to CFC solvents and the ability to
help Mexico skip CFC solvents as they expanded and modernised factories, in
collaboration with international government and business partners.
Approach
The partnership strategy was to fully involve Mexican factory managers and solvent
cleaning experts through workshops, technology study tours, and training. Nortel
assigned a full-time coordinator to identify barriers and work with the Mexican
government and industry authorities to speed technology change.

Impacts
The leadership of the government of Mexico in announcing a rapid CFC phaseout
goal motivated multinational companies to concentrate on modernising their Mexican
production facilities. Within three years of starting the project, AT&T
built their first CFC-free factory in the world, demonstrating the technical
superiority of aqueous cleaning; Nortel built a new factory using "no clean"
soldering that eliminated the need to clean with CFCs. The technology was later
duplicated throughout the world. With the help of multinational companies and
associations, the new ozone-safe technologies were demonstrated and Mexican
experts were trained to implement alternatives. The project was ultimately successful
when the United States required products made either with or containing ozone-depleting
substances to be labelled. As a result of the technology cooperation, Mexican
industry was poised for the change when the labelling law took effect. The workshops
had educated Mexican experts and helped prepare the infrastructure to accept
new technology.
Lessons Learned
The initial slow progress in implementing technology at Mexican factories has
four explanations: 1) local companies initially lacked motivation to change,
2) customers of Mexican products were slow to specify environmental criteria,
3) funds from the Multilateral Fund of the Montreal Protocol were delayed by
government procedures, and 4) CFC solvent suppliers discounted prices and undercut
market incentives.